Palace: Avoiding the Perils of the Cool Cycle While Crafting Banging Gorpcore Garms

Late in 2019, Skatelier’s humble group of artisans found themselves standing around in the dark with a bunch of people at the William McKinley Monument, which punctuates the East end of SF’s Panhandle. A few skateboarders had rigged up a screen and projector to show a short video offering by Japanese clothing brand Jhakx (likely the subject of a future newsletter). While the people putting on the event were sorting through technical difficulties, beers were opened, heckling could be heard, and more and more faceless figures congregated amongst the trees. We’ll skip the platitudes about skateboarding’s DIY ethos or whatever, but you can rest assured this event was very underground and super core. 

At one point I heard a British accent, turned my head, and was greeted by Palace’s Lev Tanju. He said it was the first time he had been to San Francisco in many years, seemed excited about the event, and was making it a point to respectfully introduce himself to everyone in his immediate vicinity. Chatting about it later, the crew at Skatelier agreed it was pretty fuckin’ cool that the head of an internationally-known, multi-million dollar company was sitting around at an unsanctioned video premier having a drink and shooting the shit with random skateboarders. 

In the worlds of skateboarding and clothing, falling victim to the cool cycle is hard to avoid. People start off with pure intentions, a spark of creativity, and the desire to be hands-on in executing their vision. This energy draws people in, creates a fanbase, and leads to prestige and sometimes money. As overhead, brand recognition, and infrastructure grow, time spent tending to that initial spark may be exchanged for time spent looking at spreadsheets or answering to investors. The focus shifts from fulfilling creative desires to fulfilling capitalist ones and things become corny. There are many examples of this dynamic in both industries, but Element is the perfect case study to illustrate how a company can get washed out in the cool cycle. One can only imagine what had to happen behind closed doors for them to go from Julien Stranger running backside noseblunt slides at Fort Miley to Johnny Schillereff banging on a bongo while listing off goofy inspirational buzzwords. Just…absolutely peaking levels of second-hand embarrassment. 

With Lev, the difference seems to be that he’s been able to balance the celebrity endorsements, “hype beast” clientele, and financial success with his original priorities, which happen to be talking shit with his friends and drinking pints while wearing cool gear. 12 or so years ago, I sat alone behind the counter of a skate shop in a small town 5 days a week and would religiously watch the Jake’s Alley games of skate on the Slam City site. I was charmed by the slang and overall jovial attitude. Some of the people featured in these games would go on to be integral parts of Palace, and watching a few of them provides insight into the dynamics that birthed the company. You also get to see Lev hit a pretty beast nollie frontside heelflip.

Interviews over the years would indicate that one of the core values of his operation is taking care of friends, riders, and anyone near the core of the brand. Beyond that, he continues to be in the trenches writing captions, editing videos, and going on trips with the team. Palace has provided a free indoor skatepark to get London’s skateboarders through freezing winter months and pledged to donate a million dollars towards the fight against police brutality. Things like their contract to make the Wimbledon Tennis Kits or having Juan Saavedra jump a horse over a rally car in their Ralph Lauren collaboration advert seem more like real-life manifestations of jokes made while “pissed” than calculated marketing aimed at driving sales and appeasing shareholders.    

The fact that Palace has been able to navigate the cool cycle without becoming a parody of itself is a lucky thing for skateboarding and clothing enthusiasts alike. The video output is brilliant — tasteful adult skateboarding mixed with pleasing visuals and music, not to mention the occasional Torey Goodall clip. And while Palace often gets lumped into the “streetwear” category, they have evolved to produce lines that deftly combine influences from sportswear, workwear, ivy style, and beyond.

The team at Skatelier would argue that they have also spent the last few years becoming an underappreciated force in the gorpcore sphere. Now, our team of humble craftspeople tends to gravitate toward ~pretentious~ garments that have been assembled in small batches by artisans using traditional methods, but we also appreciate the thrill of picking up a jacket and getting that first glimpse of the jumble of hangtags featuring futuristic proprietary fabric names and logos. Although Palace is making garms on par with the hikercore heavyweights, they’re not being featured on Organiclab.zip or being posted about on gorpcore forums, and we wonder why. Here’s a list of just some of the tech specs found in their current range:

*Italian Olmetex Nylon Crinkle Oxford (!) 

*Injection molded Triferg badges

*3M Scotchlite reflective hits 

*Inside jokes 

*Goretex Infinium fabric with Windstopper technology

*Lycra-bound collars

*Mad pockets everywhere 

*Ventile bucket hats 

*Dupont Sorona synthetic down fill 

*Dope logo’d-out toggles and drawcord adjusters

*Pertex Diamondfuse Ripstop 

*Teflon finishes

*Polartech Fleece 

*Primaloft Insulation

One of the designers we have to thank for all this technical heat is designer Gabriel “Nugget” Pluckrose, another Slam City local who participated in that Jake’s Alley game of skate tournament. His work with Gore-Tex rivals that of the esteemed Nanamica, and the patterns he comes up with (realistic water-bead pattern on a waterproof jacket!!) are on the level of some of the trippy shit that Skatelier-favorite And Wander produces. The difference, in this case, is that while a jacket from one of these Japanese Giants will likely run you over $500, Palace is able to work at a price point that’s closer to the likes of trad-gorp brands like The Northface or Marmot. Sure, this price discrepancy has a lot to do with country of manufacture, but considering the technical features that offer matchless high performance across duel contexts (both skateboarding and chilling), these pieces are very reasonably priced. 

The average skateboarder might balk at a $250 dollar jacket, but for fans of technical outerwear, the price is easily justified. This season’s Cell Net jacket features a water repellent nylon Taslan fabric by Scottish heritage mill, Halley Stevensons. Due to their expertise in waxed fabrics with fine finishes, yardage from Halley Stevensons doesn’t come cheap. Most brands employing this stuff for their garments are going to push the artisanal angle and charge an arm and a leg, but Palace offers the feature-packed Cell Net jacket for just $248. 

Based on their outdoors-ready (and pub-ready) design elements, next-level fabric selection, and competitive pricing, Palace should be high up in the hiker core hierarchy. Plus, they’ve done multiple collaborations with Salomon! So why are they being left out of the conversation? Is it because of the “streetwear” or “ravewear” sections of their design Venn diagram? Is it the dash of levity in their presentation? Hard to say, but one thing’s for sure…it only takes a couple hundred bucks and a few clicks on their webshop to both look and feel good, whether you’re hitting a hard seltzer in the park on a windy day or like, hiking through ice storms or whatever.